Liturgy

From the Greek word leitourgia, which originally meant a public duty of any kind. In Jewish usage the word was specially applied to temple services (e.g., 2 Chr. 8:14, Septuagint). In the NT it is used for Christian service of God, though no distinction is made between worship and other kinds of service (Phil. 2:17). In English the word denotes a service of public, or corporate worship, and hence also a prescribed form used on such occasions, which may be a baptismal, eucharistic liturgy, etc. In churches with a liturgical tradition, however, the word on its own is normally understood to refer to the Eucharist. Services of daily prayer, and those (e.g., burial) which are less than full assemblies of the church, are referred to as “offices.”